Michael Rosen's Pocket Shakespeare: A Beginner's Guide to the Best Bits of the Bard

Michael Rosen is one of the most popular authors for children; his bestselling titles published by Walker Books include We're Going on a Bear Hunt, A Great Big Cuddle and Michael Rosen’s Sad Book. A popular radio broadcaster, distinguished critic and academic, and multi-award-winning poet, Michael was appointed the Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009, and is now Professor of Children's Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London.Chris Riddell is one of the country's finest children's book illustrators, and was Children's Laureate from 2015–17. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal three times – for Pirate Diary, Gulliver's Travels and The Sleeper and the Spindle. He is a political cartoonist for the Observer and has collaborated with Paul Stewart on the extremely popular Edge Chronicles and Muddle Earth series. In recent years he has had success writing and illustrating his own books, including the Ottoline stories and Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, which won a Costa Book Award.

Shakespeare has inspired so many abridged editions for children that the choice can seem overwhelming. But Michael Rosen’s Pocket Shakespeare, for readers aged nine to 12, promises something different […] The emphasis of the book, as one might expect, is to make Shakespeare more accessible to young readers (with the aid of expressive illustrations by Chris Riddell) […] In many ways, this short, engaging book is typical of Rosen’s work. On the one hand, the prose is so laid-back that it almost seems too easy – yet there’s real wisdom to be found.